Spring has Sprung, week 7: Superheroes

Ben is here to honor some real-life superheroes, the Tuskegee Airmen. This group of African American men played an important role in World War ll, despite the racial segregation that existed in the U.S. armed forces at the time. You can learn more about them online or at the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton Ohio, the World War ll Museum in New Orleans, the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Tuskegee Alabama, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., and I am sure many other museums. They were also featured in the mini-series “Masters of the Air”.

January 12, 1966, the first episode of the Adam West and Burt Ward "Batman" premiered. The first celebrity villain was Frank Gorshin as the Riddler. ("Hi Diddle Riddle", Batman, TV, event)

SEGA making new Team Dark interactions: They aren't family anymore. They. Are. Coworkers. Stop acting like they care about eachother.

SEGS making new Team Chaotix interactions: They aren't coworkers anymore. They. Are. Family. Stop acting like they don't care for eachother.

helpppp. real

fuck man

finding out new things about nightwing makes me go insane, rotating him in my mind at high speeds, centrifuge his ass, I want to pull him apart, see his every facet, study him like a bug. hes just so interesting to me. there's so many interesting things to his character that could be explored and delved into. things that would be cool to see. like, hes just got so many parts that could and have interacted in ways that just captivate me.

Oh Christ,

Steadfast belief in restorative justice is psychosis, Grant??

Now that Super Hero is in Crunchy with all the existing dubs (?) took the chance to rewatch it and felt like trying an screenshot redraw :3c

PS: if you can, please check out LATAM spanish dub scream of the "Makankosappo" uwu

every 3-6 months my opinon on nick locarno does a complete 180. it’s like hey buddy ✌️😁

I was thinking about character flaws and their interrelationship with character growth—like, yes, these can make characters more realistic, dynamic, and sometimes (where relevant) more relatable. For me, flawed characters with actual character growth are almost always improvements from idealized characters who are never allowed to make misjudgments or mistakes.

But that's pretty obvious, and I was thinking some more about why I'm drawn by significantly flawed characters who are still clearly good people and who do remarkably heroic things when push comes to shove. They don't just feel more interesting to me because of this mix of real flaws with a strong and admirable ethical core. To me, they actually feel like better people, even though they are clearly more flawed than the idealized type.

Sometimes it's because their virtues lead them to more drastic heroic actions—often some kind of reversal/amendment of a previous mistake—so there can be a stronger impression of goodness on some audiences even if they aren't literally more virtuous. But I think that's something else going on, too.

I said above that flawed but essentially noble characters can feel like better people even though they are definitely more flawed than idealized ones. But I'd correct that to: because they are more flawed than the idealized ones.

The thing is, I don't quite believe idealized characters unless there's some kind of edge. Fandom sometimes refers to this as "chaotic energy," though I don't think it's necessarily chaotic in a literal sense, just sharp and often unexpected. Usually, these are among my favorite moments for a noble character—like Luke Skywalker losing his shit on the second Death Star or Faramir blaming Denethor for Boromir's death.

I especially don't believe idealized characters as main characters. Their virtues and trivial flaws (when they have them) are just kind of meh to me. A flawed character whose flaws are significant but still considerably outweighed by their virtues, especially if they actually grow over time, feels like a better person to me, because in this odd way, their clear flaws let me believe the virtues are real.

I understand why the uniform everyday niceness of more idealized characters can be very appealing for some people, and the strongest evidence of good character—not how someone acts in flashy extreme situations, but how they act in day-to-day life when they don't have to be nice to everyone, but just are.

I am not one of those people, in part because I grew up in a conservative community that puts an extremely high premium on day-to-day niceness. You should be courteous to everyone! You should take compassion on the unfortunate, and be helpful to your neighbors, and blahblahblah. They're super nice! And part of growing up as a lesbian in that community was discovering how little that niceness ultimately meant.

It's not that all nice people turn out to be bigots supporting horrific policies (though mostly they are in that community). But day-to-day niceness does not in any way prevent that. So when I see characters who are really nice and idealized for the persistent niceness rather than any more pronounced action, my instinctive response is "maybe." OTOH, if someone screws up here and there or has to overcome an inclination towards some major flaw, but can be depended upon to come through when it's super important—that's what good people in my life look like. So I suspect that's part of why it tends to be the heroic type I'm most drawn to and find most convincing and moral.

i had a dream that i got some kind of pd spin-off graphic novel and it was so cool :'( if only she was real

At the crossroads between wondering if it's worth it to basically completely rewrite all my WIPs or just take a break from writing for the rest of the summer

On September 5, 1992, the iconic Batman the Animated Series premiered. "The Cat and the Claw pt. I" was actually the 15th episode produced, but it was decided to be used as the premiere episode to cash in on the excitement over Michelle Pfieffer's appearance as Catwoman in "Batman Returns". "Cat and the Claw pt. II" wouldn't air until September 12... episode 8. ("The Cat and the Claw pt I" Batman the Animated Series, TV, event)

it’s so interesting to me that murph said in this short rest episode that he thinks d&d parties make more sense if most of the characters aren’t too wacky/out there wrt weird races because my first d&d group was only weird guys. tiefling, water genasi, dragonborn, and rabbitfolk. maybe it’s just a cis vs trans dnd player thing lol

the tragedy inherent to the superhero genre is extremely compelling it’s just that comic/film/tv creators these days fundamentally misunderstand what that inherent tragedy IS… where it comes from, why it’s interesting, what to do with it… they don’t get it & ultimately ofc most of them don’t really care.

guy whose only exposure to sociopolitical conflict is through marvel movies: holy shit….this is just lik….mavel heroes….

in another universe Jesus is on the avengers